Kolobeng Mission

Kolobeng Mission
Location of Kolobeng Mission in Botswana
Location	Kumakwane, Kweneng, Botswana
Coordinates	24°39′17″S 25°39′56″E / 24.65470°S 25.66550°E / -24.65470; 25.66550Coordinates: 24°39′17″S 25°39′56″E / 24.65470°S 25.66550°E / -24.65470; 25.66550
Elevation	1,030 metres (3,380 ft)
Built	1847
Built for	David Livingstone
Governing body	Department of National Museum and Monuments

Indeed, not ten inches of water fell during these two years, and the Kolobeng ran dry; so many fish were killed that the hyaenas from the whole country round collected to the feast, and were unable to finish the putrid masses. A large old alligator, which had never been known to commit any depredations, was found left high and dry in the mud among the victims.

Kolobeng Mission (also known as the Livingstone Memorial), built in 1847, the third and final mission of David Livingstone, a missionary and explorer of Africa. Located in the country of Botswana, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of Kumakwane and 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Gaborone off the Thamaga-Kanye Road, the mission housed a church and a school and was also the home of David Livingstone, his wife Mary Livingstone, and their children. While here, Livingstone converted Sechele I, kgosi of the Bakwena and taught them irrigation methods using the nearby Kolobeng River. A drought began in 1848, and the Bakwena blamed the natural disaster on Livingstone's presence. In 1852, Boer farmers attacked the tribes in the area, including the Bakwena at Kolobeng in the Battle of Dimawe. This prompted the Livingstones to leave Kolobeng, and the mission was abandoned. A fence was installed around the site in 1935, and the mission is now preserved by the Department of National Museum and Monuments under Botswana's Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism.

Before David Livingstone arrived in Kolobeng, he was first assigned to a London Missionary Society mission in Kuruman in present-day South Africa in 1841. He met Sechele I, leader of the Bakwena, while stationed in Kuruman. He later moved to Chonuane with the Bakwena and stayed there for a year. A drought occurred, and Livingstone convinced Sechele that rainmaking would not end the drought, and that the only way to water their crops was to "select some good, never-failing river, make a canal, and irrigate the adjacent lands". They chose the Kolobeng River 40 miles (64 km) away and immediately moved there.